The Lotus and the Lily
by dazai-san
Summary: The Will of the Abyss, in her final act, returns Xerxes's sight and his life and sends him into the city of Namimori. "I-I don't want to die," were Xerxes's last words, after all. "Your wish has been granted," were the Will of the Abyss's.
1. PROLOGUE

**Timeline:** Post manga for both.

 **Pairings:** 2795, 8059, 1869, XS, B26, 6656, 3387, Reim/Break, mentions of Oz\Alice.

 **Summary:** The Will of the Abyss, in her final act, returns Xerxes's sight and his life and sends him into the city of Namimori. "I-I don't want to die," were Xerxes's last words, after all. "Your wish has been granted."

 **Warnings:** Spoilers, violence, swearing (mostly on Gokudera's part, but we still love him), a bit of angst here and there, humor, homo and heterosexuality, me being the author, the works.

 **Notes:** There are NO chains in this world. Xerxes has his eyesight. This is POST MANGA for both. The Pandora Hearts characters will NOT be making their appearances. No, Xerxes will not age. Any questions? Review or something.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not, and do not want to, own Pandora Hearts or KHR. If I did, I wouldn't love the characters like I do.

~oOo~

Xerxes can't see her crumbling, but he can imagine her clearly, her face gentle as she cradles Cheshire in her arms. She smiles warmly at him, her lavender eyes meeting his.

"Thank you," she says, laughing slightly. "For helping grant my wish." The Will of the Abyss comes closer, letting Cheshire drop to the floor and follow her. Her pale hand brushes against Xerxes's cheek, ghosting over the trail his tear had went down.

When he does not reply, the Will of the Abyss tilts her head. "You aren't dead, you know." He flinches and instinctively closes his eye when her fingers touch it. When she removes her hand, he opens it once more and is greeted with the sight of the white haired little girl so reminiscent of the Alice he's known for so long. Perhaps it should be the other way around, really.

"I-I can see," Xerxes murmurs, looking down at his hand. The Will of the Abyss laughs slightly.

"Certainly. Please, start a new life, like I might be able to," the Will of the Abyss says. "You aren't Kevin Regnard anymore." Bringing their foreheads together, Xerxes feels as if knowledge is being forced into his mind, but he doesn't think it's uncomfortable.

"You are Xerxes Break, and you've done more for me than you can imagine." She pulls away. "Thank you," she says again, and Cheshire leaps into her arms as she disappears all together into particles of golden light.

This is the last thing Xerxes remembers, as everything fades to pitch black.

When Sawada Tsunayoshi returns from school that day, he is greeted by the sight of a white-haired stranger sprawled across his front doorstep.

~oOo~

 **A/N:** AAAAAND here's your prologue. Meow. I hope you liked it… drop a review, please?

If you're wondering about the title of this fanfiction, the lotus symbolizes rebirth and the lily is innocence.


	2. CHAPTER 1

_Warnings, disclaimer, pairings, etc., are all in prologue._

~oOo~

Tsuna is having a good day.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, Gokudera and Yamamoto are getting along relatively well (at least Gokudera-kun isn't trying to kill the other), Hibari-san ignored him, school is finally over, Reborn isn't trying to murder him, and there isn't any mafia business.

All in all, Tsuna gives this day eight point sixty four out of ten.

Until he sees the unconscious white haired man sprawled out on his front doorstep, a black something in his hand.

Then his day goes from eight point sixty four to six point thirty nine out of ten.

"An intruder? Tenth, did you invite him?" Gokudera asks, to which Tsuna shakes his head vehemently. Seeing this, Gokudera's dynamite is already out.

"No, no, no, no!" Tsuna squeaks. "He might be hurt!"

"But Tenth, he's _invading_ your territory!"

"No means no, Gokudera-kun!"

Hesitantly, Gokudera's dynamite disappears to god knows where. Tsuna rushes to the man's side and without much difficulty heaves him up with one of his arms on Tsuna's shoulders. "Some help here?"

Immediately Gokudera comes to his side and takes up the man's other arm and they go inside. "Is he heavy?" Yamamoto asks, picking up the black thing the man was carrying earlier from the ground. With a little more inspection, Tsuna realizes it's a sheath.

"No, not really," Tsuna replies, which is oddly true. "No need to help."

"Oh, okay. Where's your mom today, anyway?"

"Ah, she's probably out buying groceries. I wonder where Reborn is."

"Tenth! Do you want me to go find him?"

"No, that's alright, Gokudera-kun."

After they drag him up the stairs, Yamamoto opening the door to Tsuna's room for them and dropping the sheath on the ground, Tsuna props him up against his bed. "Hey, Yamamoto, you know where my sleeping bags are, right? Could you go get them?"

"Okay." Yamamoto heads downstairs while Gokudera sits a distance away from the white haired man.

As soon as Yamamoto returns, the white haired man stirs with a slight groan.

"Ah, you're awake!"

~oOo~

Xerxes awakens with a groan when he hears a couple of thumps indicating footsteps. Ah, is Reim bringing in his clothes? Ah, he'd better thank him later…

But when his eye opens fully, and light floods his senses, he's immediately reminded of the events that occurred.

 _I… I am alive. I can see._

A young brown haired boy with warm brown eyes is staring at him with worry in his eyes. "Ah! You're awake!"

For a moment, Xerxes doesn't have the ability to respond. The language seems foreign but somehow, he can understand. He just blinks dumbly for a moment and before he can open his mouth and say anything, a silver haired boy with sharp green eyes snaps, "The Tenth just spoke to you! Respond!"

As if to spite him, Xerxes just blinks again and cocks his head slightly, amusement coloring his red eye. This person reminds him of Gilbert. And the cigarette doesn't help in the slightest.

"A-ah, Gokudera-kun, he might not understand what we're saying; he looks foreign," the brown haired boy squeaks, waving his hands wildly. "Don't blow him up!"

A black haired boy standing in the doorway and carrying a sleeping bag laughs while "Gokudera" whirls around to glare at him. "What's so funny, baseball freak!"

"Oh, you jump to conclusions so easily, it's kinda cute."

Xerxes lets his lips twitch up in a faint smirk.

"C-cute?!" "Gokudera" exclaims, his face red and voice an octave higher. "W-what are you talking about, baseball freak?!" He doesn't sound so intimidating when he's flustered.

"You fluster easily," Xerxes comments calmly, smirking widely when "Gokudera" swivels to glare at him. "And your friend over there seems to be shameless."

"So you _can_ understand us!" he snaps, and dynamite appears in his hands from the Will of the Abyss knows where.

"Ah, Gokudera-kun! You'll wreck my house!" the "Tenth" squeals. "Don't kill him!"

"But Tenth! He might be a threat!"

"If I were a threat, I would know where I am and what I am doing here," Xerxes says breezily. "Also, I would be letting out a certain amount of killing intent which, I do not doubt, you could certainly feel." That last part, although directed to all of them, is mainly towards the well hidden presence outside the window.

The dynamite disappears to wherever it came from, albeit hesitantly. "Gokudera" chews on his lip in annoyance, though the annoyance is certainly not directed towards "Tenth".

"Um, let's try again. I'm Tsunayoshi Sawada, but most people call me Tsuna," the "Tenth" says, looking embarrassed. "This is Takeshi Yamamoto, and that is Hayato Gokudera."

"Xerxes Break," he answers smoothly. "Pleased to meet you." Tsunayoshi straightens up and gives him a smile while offering Xerxes a hand.

Taking it if only to be polite, Xerxes spots his sword lying on the ground as he's pulled up by Tsunayoshi's surprisingly strong grip. Stooping down, he retrieves it.

Tsunayoshi is probably on first name basis with just about everyone, while Takeshi Yamamoto seems okay with both last and first name. Xerxes notices that he seems to be adaptable and rather amiable. Hayato Gokudera probably doesn't like being referred to with his first name, and while he's adaptable, he's certainly not amiable. Briefly Xerxes wonders what shaped him in such a way.

"Thank you, Tsunayoshi-kun," Xerxes says, the honorific slipping out of his mouth unbidden. He recalls what the Will of the Abyss had done when she pressed their foreheads together. She may have been forcing a language into his mind.

For some odd reason, Tsunayoshi shudders. "Please don't call me that. Only Mukuro does that and he's _creepy._ "

Xerxes just shrugs. "And you don't find me creepy, Tsunayoshi-san?" He drops the "kun" and replaces it with a "san".

"Um, I guess not?" Tsunayoshi responds awkwardly, the statement coming out like a question. "Though just 'Tsuna' is fine, Break-san."

"You don't sound sure, Tsunayoshi-san." Xerxes lets his amusement show when a smirk plays over his lips.

"Oi, you bastard, don't make fun of the Tenth!" Gokudera growls, leaping to his feet.

"Maa, maa, Gokudera, don't be like that," Yamamoto pipes cheerfully. "He's not being mean or anything."

"The hell he isn't! He has a smug look on his face, the bastard—what the fuck are _you_ laughing at, asshole?!"

"You remind me a lot of an acquaintance of mine," Xerxes replies, waving a sleeve at Gokudera. "Overly protective, bad tempered, smoking, an inability to call their superiors by name, and a puppy crush on said superior."

"P- _puppy crush_?! What the fuck, you asshole?!"

"Ah yes, you're probably popular with the ladies, much like said acquaintance. Though you are a bit more… ah… _explosive,_ if you don't mind the pun."

"The _hell_ I don't! Shut the hell up!"

"Maa, maa, Gokudera, it's all true, isn't it?" Yamamoto jumps in happily. "You sound like this 'ackwaynetense' of Break-san's!"

"It's _acquaintance_ dumbass, and no I do not!"

"However, you're more of a brat than he is."

"Alright, that's it, you fucking—!"

"Who said being a brat was a bad thing? You're all brats to me anyway, considering you're much younger than me."

"Don't call the Tenth a brat you son of a—!"

"C-calm down, Gokudera-kun," Tsunayoshi stammers out nervously. "He doesn't mean any harm."

"Ah, I think I should be going now, anyway," Xerxes says. "I've overstayed my welcome, considering your friend is trying to kill me with his glare. I've seen worse, Gokudera-san."

Before he goes though, he walks towards Gokudera, dropping his voice. "Here are some parting words, something I used to tell that same acquaintance. 'If there is only one person or thing you wish to protect, you must be cruel enough to get rid of everything else. Because no one can get back what they have lost.' And another piece of advice. 'A loyalty that holds fast will become a blade, and will pierce someday those you hold dear. So open your eyes wide, unless you want to end up like me.'"

Without further ado, Xerxes slips under Tsunayoshi's bed and disappears with a brief "Adieu."

~oOo~

Break's presence… simply _disappeared._ Tsuna squeaks and peeks under the bed, expecting to see the white haired man there, but he's _gone._ "He's disappeared!"

Gokudera's eyes widen. "That's impossible! Is he a UMA?!"

"Haha, Gokudera, UMAs don't exist! It's probably a trick with his flames!"

"UMAs _do_ exist, baseball freak! How do you explain Shit P. then?"

"Um, she's a human being, Gokudera-kun. Certainly not normal, but a human."

"…whatever you say, Tenth."

Tsuna flops on to his bed, staring at the ceiling. "I'll ask Reborn when he gets back…"

"Ask me what?"

"HIIE! REBORN!" Tsuna screeches (in a manly fashion, yes) and falls off the bed. "Where did you come from?!"

"The window. Ask me what?"

Knowing his ruthless tutor will beat him up later if he doesn't ask his question, Tsuna just sighs and asks, "Do you know anyone called Xerxes Break? Because a weird white haired man with red eyes showed up in front of the house today!"

"I was listening the entire time," Reborn deadpans. "Unfortunately Xerxes Break simply does not _exist_ in this world, so I don't know him. I have seen him before, and I have heard of him before, but I do not _know_ him."

Yamamoto had sat down at some point. "Reborn-san, what do you mean by 'this world'?" Gokudera inquires.

"I don't really know the actual workings behind this stuff—ask Verde for the details—but you know that there are an infinite amount of possibilities in this world, am I correct?"

The three of them nod. "Have you heard of the tales known as 'the Tragedy of Sablier'? 'The Ghostly Red Eyes'? 'The Abyss'? 'Bloodstained B-Rabbit'? 'The War of the Four Houses'? 'Will of the Abyss'?"

Gokudera nods, unsurprisingly, but Tsuna has only heard of the second one, while Yamamoto just blinks. "My dad used to tell me the story of the Abyss and the Ghostly Red Eyes to scare me when I was a kid."

Reborn's black eyes are deadly serious. "These tales are all true. They take place in an alternate universe parallel to ours."

"Are you saying that Break is a person from that alternate universe?" Gokudera asks incredulously, connecting the dots quickly. "I'm sorry, Reborn-san, but that's farfetched."

Reborn tilts his fedora. "Do some research on the stories. You might be able to find this Xerxes Break somewhere around town, and _do_ ask him about them."

Then he hops out of the window.

~oOo~

 **A/N:** Well that explains all that random crap. Meow. Any questions?

Flamers will just be adding to my review count.

Please review? :3


	3. CHAPTER 2

_Warnings/Pairings/Disclaimers/etc. are in the previous chapters…_

~oOo~

Apparently, white hair isn't all that uncommon here in Namimori, since nobody gives his hair odd looks. Red eyes apparently are, since people take a look at his eye and immediately turn away.

Fucking prejudiced assholes. But Xerxes keeps a perfect poker face and continues on his merry way.

"Oi. Herbivore."

Xerxes notices that all of the people in the vicinity turn immediately at the term "herbivore", looking fearful. Turning himself, he spots a teenager, wielding a pair of tonfa.

As the teenager stalks towards him in particular, he catches a couple whispers along the lines of "he's so dead" and "he's so unlucky…"

"May I help you?" Xerxes asks cheerily. "And my name's Xerxes Break, not 'Herbivore'."

One of the tonfa lashes out at his face, and with practiced ease, he sidesteps it. "Do you normally attack people without warning?" As an afterthought, he adds mockingly, "Carnivore-kun."

"I don't like you," the now dubbed Carnivore states bluntly. "I will bite you to death."

Xerxes peers at him, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think your teeth are sharp enough for that, Carnivore-kun."

Huffing, Carnivore lashes out again, Xerxes merely dodging again.

"What did I even do that makes you hate me, anyway?"

"Your gait," Carnivore answers flatly. "It's clear you've been in battle before. And you remind me of pineapples."

Xerxes blinks. "Pineapples?" He raises an eyebrow. "But then again, apart from that, you've clearly been in battle yourself before, hypocrite. I'm not trying to harm you."

Carnivore studies him for a moment. "I suppose not," he decides. "But I still want to bite you to death."

"Ah, what a violent child." Xerxes considers for a moment. "Why not? But somewhere a little less populated. And I also need a name to match your face. Your name is clearly not 'Carnivore'."

"…Kyouya Hibari. And the rooftop of the school is good."

~oOo~

Upon stepping onto the rooftop, he spots a purple-haired young man, and he raises an eyebrow. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Immediately both Hibari and the purple-haired man choke.

"Hell no," Hibari spits. "And for such an accusation I will bite you to death."

"I wouldn't date a violent little bastard like him," the purple-haired one hisses at the same time.

Xerxes dodges another blow. "It seems like you know each other," he observes. "And you two clearly don't exactly hate each other enough to actually kill each other." Suddenly it dawns on him. "Could this be the pineapple you were mentioning earlier?"

The purple-haired one twitches visibly.

"Can I kill you?" Hibari asks, to both Xerxes and the pineapple.

"No, of course not," the purple-haired man says cheerfully, masking the dark anger beneath from being referred to as a "pineapple". "But you're welcome to try."

"Dammit herbivore!" Hibari lunges and a three pronged trident appears in the man's hands and blocks the blow.

"Well, Hibari-kun, pineapple-kun, I'll be taking my leave now!" Xerxes heads down the stairs, his leaving words most likely pissing them off—"I'll leave you two to your lover's spat!"

~oOo~

After a while of exploring Namimori and avoiding Hibari and the pineapple by reading in the library, Xerxes runs into an energetic and white-haired youth.

"Ah, my apologies," Xerxes murmurs.

"It's okay to the extreme!" the youth shouts enthusiastically. "I'm Ryohei Sasagawa and I love boxing to the extreme!"

Xerxes blinks. "Don't you mean you love the word 'extreme' to the extreme?"

Ryohei's eyes widen. "That is true to the extreme!"

"I'm Xerxes Break, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sasagawa-san."

"There is no need to call me that to the extreme, Break-san!" Ryohei practically roars. "'Ryohei' is fine to the extreme!"

Xerxes laughs. "Alright then. Ryohei-kun."

"That's better to the extreme!"

"Ryohei-kun, shouting like that constantly isn't all that good for your vocal cords."

"I'm used to it to the extreme! I'm also a doctor, so I'll be fine to the extreme!" Ryohei boasts proudly.

 _A doctor…? This energetic guy?_

"Ah, Onii-san!" Tsunayoshi cries, clearly referring to Ryohei. His friends, Gokudera and Yamamoto, are right behind him.

"Ah! Tsuna!"

"Eh? Break-san?" Tsunayoshi asks, spotting him. "What're you doing here?"

"Ah! Tsuna! You know Break-san to the extreme?"

"We met briefly," Xerxes says to Ryohei. "And I'm just exploring. I also somehow incurred the wrath of Hibari-kun and a man who looks suspiciously like a pineapple."

At this Ryohei and Tsunayoshi look terrified, Gokudera looks annoyed, and Yamamoto is unaffected.

"Y-you incurred the wrath of _Hibari-san and Mukuro?_ "

Xerxes shrugs carelessly. "Hibari-kun tried to kill me after he saw me earlier. I made peace with him (kind of) and he practically forced me into fighting him on the rooftop of your school. I saw the man who looks suspiciously like a pineapple—I'll assume he's Mukuro—there before us, I asked whether they were dating, and they got into a fight, and I left."

"Actually, Break- _san_ , after about two minutes of fighting, we decided to come to a truce to kill you," the pineapple man's voice hisses from behind them.

Xerxes, not at all startled, simply smirks. "Wow. You two _do_ make a perfect pair, you know." He turns to Tsunayoshi and laughs. "Well, I'd better get going now!"

Then he proceeds to skip (yes, _skip_ ) away at an alarmingly fast pace that looks completely natural.

~oOo~

"He's suicidal to the extreme," Ryohei decides almost immediately as soon as Mukuro and Hibari take off after Break.

Tsuna nods in agreement. "Hibari-san and Mukuro are going to _murder_ him."

Gokudera cackles. "I want to be there to see it."

Tsuna frowns slightly. "I think we should be there to stop it. Come on." With that, he chases after the prefect, the illusionist, and the insane albino.

After a few minutes of chasing, they find Break sitting on the top of a fence, smirking down at Hibari and Mukuro.

"Hibari-san, Mukuro, stop it," Tsuna calls, sounding stern.

"Ah, Tsunayoshi-san!" Break chirps cheerily. "Just let them have their fun. It's not like they'd be willing to kill an old man like me."

" _Old_?" Hibari huffs. "Herbivore, you barely look twenty-five."

"You'd be surprised, Hibari-kun," Break singsongs, standing and balancing perfectly on the thin edge of the fence. "And like I said, my name isn't Herbivore, unless you have short term memory and can't remember an exotic name like 'Xerxes Break'."

Hibari growls.

"Break-san, you could fall to the extreme, and it would hurt to the extreme!" Ryohei shouts.

"Eh, nothing I haven't had before," Break replies, hopping along the fence and seriously that isn't good for Tsuna's heart.

Tsuna realizes how much sense Gokudera's UMA theory makes right now.

Hibari looks reluctant to break the fence down and of course—this is Namimori, and Hibari would never hurt his precious Namimori.

Mukuro, of course, doesn't have that problem, so he proceeds to blow up the fence, much to Hibari's clear annoyance with the way he shoots Mukuro a glare.

A faint look of surprise flickers across Break's face but if Tsuna hadn't been looking, he would have missed it.

"Ah, fine," Break sighs. "I'll actually fight you." Soundlessly, he draws a sword with no guard, which Tsuna finds a little odd.

A feral grin spreads across Hibari's face, and Mukuro breaks out into a smirk, which really isn't less scary than Hibari's grin.

"H-hey, wait!" Tsuna protests weakly, but internally, he really wants to see this.

~oOo~

While he was reading in the library, Xerxes had come across some interesting tidbits of information from a book of classic fairy tales.

They are tales of the Abyss, albeit mutated through the generations. Which leads Xerxes to think that he's in an alternate universe, which really isn't so farfetched, especially considering what the Juries had said.

As Xerxes blocks Mukuro's trident and dodges Hibari's tonfa, he asks in a cheerful tone, "Say, what do you think of the tale 'Ghostly Red Eyes'?"

Immediately he spots Tsunayoshi, Gokudera, and Yamamoto look a little startled, and the same presence that had been so quietly hidden away flares a small bit and only briefly.

"Why would you care about a children's tale?" Mukuro retorts, attacking once more, and Xerxes notices his red eye changing shape.

"Oh, nothing," Xerxes replies breezily. "Just that 'Kevin Regnard' is my given name, a name that I trashed over a century ago. Well, I suppose that really isn't the most accurate description, isn't it, Alice?"

Mukuro and Hibari falter, the intended effect that Xerxes had wanted, allowing him to lash out and throw them back.

A black cat with one red eye hisses protectively, glaring at Xerxes, as his owner rounds the corner. In all her pure and innocent glory, the Will of the Abyss smiles childishly, lacing her fingers together. "I suppose not, Kevin-kun—or rather, Xerxes-kun."

~oOo~

 **A/N:** I'M SO SORRY OKAY /bows deeply\\\

LONG WAIT SHORT CHAPTER AND CUT-SHORT BATTLE SCENE—OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY

But hey at least Cheshire and White Alice appeared right?


End file.
